Handmaid’s Tale Hits 30: Readalikes

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale turns 30 this year, and as an avid fan of the book, I'd like to propose some readalikes. For those of you not familiar with Atwood's dystopian story, the United States has been taken over by Christian fundamentalists and (supposedly) biblical rule is the law. There's also a venereal disease going around that makes its victims sterile, and so fertile women are rounded up, indoctrinated, and made "handmaids" to powerful married men. This is the story of one such handmaid, her life before and after the revolution.

When She Woke is Hilary Jordan's second book, also taking place in a religious dystopia. Following in certain places Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Hester Payne has been "chromed" (had her skin semi-permanently dyed) red because she has had an abortion after having an affair with a popular, married pastor who she refuses to name during her trial. After a monstrous experience in a halfway house of sorts, Hester falls in with a group of underground feminists who attempt to spirit her and a friend to Canada. This book is a real page-turner because you root for the heroine and want her to survive and have some closure with the weak-willed preacher.

Archetype by M.D. Waters is set in a United States that is torn apart by civil war and the lack of fertile women. Emma wakes to find she has no memory, but a rich husband who loves her and wants her to be well (and bear his children). Despite the attentions of a medical staff and her husband, Emma is tormented by memories that make no sense with her current situation and a sardonic inner voice she calls Her. As the book progresses, Emma realizes that her husband is not quite who he claims to be, and that she was once a member of a paramilitary group fighting against him. Telling more is spoiling the fun of this quick read, and there is a sequel, Prototype.

The last book I am going to recommend, Christian Nation, by Frederic Rich, doesn't deal with the ladies so much, though the Christian fundamentalists figure prominently. This piece of speculative fiction envisions what might have happened if John McCain had won the 2008 election and promptly died. Written by a lawyer, this doorstopper carefully lays out how a fundamentalist takeover could happen, often using their own words for inspiration. Rich holds that the fundamentalists are very transparent about their goals, if not always their methods, and we ignore them to our peril. Definitely spine-chilling fare for moderates and progressives.